June Meeting – “Get Schooled: Deciding if a Games Education is Right for You”

This month’s Boston Post Mortem is Wednesday, June 8th at Monroe in Cambridge and will begin at 7:00pm; talk begins at8:00pm.

Our presentation this month is, “Get Schooled: Deciding if a Games Education is Right for You”.

This panel tackles the big question: How can I make games for a living? Countless programs are popping up, promising the perfect training needed to create games. It’s as simple as attend class, receive diploma, get job, right? Not exactly. Come to our panel and learn what it really takes to become a game developer and how the world of games education can help or hinder your progress.

Panelists:Todd DeMelle is the Art Director for The Lord of the Rings Online at WB Turbine. He started his game development career at Turbine in 2003 as an art intern after a stint as a freelance digital illustrator. With his foot in the door, he made it a point to take on opportunities whenever they arose. Over the course of time, he found himself working in a variety of different roles with increasing responsibilities eventually leading to his current role as AD on the LOTRO team.

Ralph Sutter is a 3D character artist and animator from the greater Boston area originally from the Netherlands. After graduating from the New England Institute of Art’s Media Arts and Animation program in 2010, Ralph has worked in the game industry, as a medical animator and a 3D freelance artist/generalist. Since 2012 he is also an instructor at WPI where he teaches several 3D art and animation courses as part of their Interactive Media and Game Development program.

Emma Clarkson is the producer for Outact Inc, a team of veteran developers with AAA backgrounds working on a mobile strategy title, and is also Lead Content Designer for the team. She got her start in the game industry in marketing and community management before transitioning to production and design as part of building Outact Inc. as a startup company. Outside of professional endeavors she volunteers time as a co-organizer for Women in Games Boston and has helped produce community events like the Boston Festival of Indie Games. You can follow Emma on Twitter at @emdroid.

Eric Hunn, earning his BFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2006, has had the great fortune of working on some awesome projects. These include work for places like Disruptor Beam, 38 Studios, Tom Snyder Productions, Marvel (via aniboom.com), CIDC, and KoolConnect Technologies. Currently, he serve as the department chair for Game Art & Animation at Mount Ida College, where he helps the next generation of budding artists create some fantastic projects of their own.

Cheyenne Morrin is a game designer, visual and literary artist, and anthropologist. Her goal is to leverage aesthetics and systems of game mechanics into fun, meaningful play experiences. A graduate from Brown University’s Modern Culture and Media Program, she currently serves as Associate Content Designer at Turbine.

Moderator:Owen Leach, part independent game developer, part serious games scholar, has spent the last seven years exploring what games can truly be used for. Working in the industry and founding his own game studio (Bomb Shelter Games) in 2009, he has shipped multiple titles for both PC and mobile devices. In the realm of serious games Owen is exploring the role of collaboration and its effects on experiential learning as it pertains to educational games. He has worked with non-profits as well as educational institutions to ship titles that both advocate and educate. He currently resides at Mount Ida College in Newton MA, as Assistant Professor and Program Coordinator for the Game Art department. You can follow Owen on Twitter at @Bomb_Shelter.

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